


Of Tea and Trouble

by mildlyholmes



Series: The Family Potter [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, but i suppose they should be tagged anyway, mostly just lily and the three boys, peter and marlene are just around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28545690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlyholmes/pseuds/mildlyholmes
Summary: A typical Saturday when one is married to a Marauder.
Relationships: James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, James/Lily, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter
Series: The Family Potter [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969438
Kudos: 11





	Of Tea and Trouble

The clock strikes ten in the Potter household as James thunders down the stairs, dressed in nothing but his grey dressing gown, hair sticking up in every angle. Making a beeline towards the kitchen, he puts the kettle on and opens the cupboard they’d stuck a cooling charm on, hand reaching in for the glass bottle. When it meets empty air, a crease forms over his forehead.

“Lily!” he yells in the direction of the stairs.

There’s a distant, “Yeah!” yelled back.

“We’re out of milk!”

“What?”

He shuts the cupboard door and makes towards the foot of the staircase. “We’re out of milk!” he yells, louder this time.

“What’d you expect me to do about it?” comes her voice from upstairs.

“Go to the shop!”

“You go to the shop! You’re already down!”

He looks down at his attire, then yells again, “I’m in my dressing gown!”

“Get changed, then!”

“I’ve got the kettle on!”

“I’ll make sure the house doesn’t burn down while you’re gone!”

Huffing grumpily, he’s about to open his mouth with an angry retort when their front door bursts open.

Startled, James reaches for his wand before realising with a jolt that he’d left it in the kitchen. Turning swiftly, he makes for his wand as quickly as he can, but the intruder is already halfway in before he gets there –

The intruder who turns out to be Sirius Black, strolling casually down the short hallway in his direction.

James reaches for the first thing he can find – a wooden spoon – and chucks it at him. It bounces off Sirius’s chest harmlessly.

“Oi!”

“Didn’t think to knock, did you?” James says, annoyed. In Sirius’s defence, it’s not the first time he’s decided to show up unannounced in their home, but times aren’t looking the best right now and – well. James is more than a little jumpy these days.

Letting out another huff, he makes towards the kitchen again to get the kettle. Sirius follows behind, looking entirely too cheerful for the heart attack he’d almost induced on him, and begins poking around the cupboards.

“You’re out of milk,” he informs James.

“Yeah,” James responds, more than a little annoyed by now. “I was just about to go to the shop.”

Sirius looks him up and down. “You best do that up properly, mate, or you’re going to give the little old ladies a show.” He nods to the belt that’s carelessly tied around his waist, threatening to come loose at any minute. James aggressively tugs it tighter.

It’s at that moment that Lily bounds down the stairs, fully dressed and red hair wet from the shower. Her bump is a small thing, but it’s more noticeable now over the shapely sweater she wears. She stops at the sight of a second man in the house. “Sirius!” she says, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“You invited us over,” Sirius says cheerfully.

“Yes, but,” she frowns, glancing at their clock, “for lunch.”

He shrugs, offering no explanation, and continues searching through their cupboards.

James turns to his wife. “You’ve dressed,” he observes happily. “You can go to the shop, then.”

Lily frowns. “My hair is wet.”

“So? Dry it.”

She stares at him for a few moments. “I’m pregnant,” she says.

James rolls his eyes, sighs loudly, and makes for the stairs, grumbling all the while. A moment later, they hear his loud steps coming down the stairs as he emerges, fully dressed, and then the creaking of the front door as he opens it, still grumbling irritably as it slams shut behind him.

Sirius emerges from the cupboard with an apple, letting out a chuckle. “How often do you pull that card?”

“All the time,” Lily tells him honestly. “It always works. Tea?”

She knows he takes his tea black just as she does, so she busies about as he settles on their dining table, sending his coat zooming to the coat rack with a lazy flick of his wand. After adding sugar – one teaspoon for her and an inappropriate amount for him – she plops down beside him.

“I thought Marlene would be with you,” she says, pushing the second cup across the table.

Sirius rolls his wrist holding the half-eaten apple and shrugs. “Her brother’s going away for Ministry business. She wanted to see him off, said she’d come by later.”

“And while she was gone you thought it’d be best to bother your mates on a Saturday morning.”

“Sounds about right, yeah.” He takes another bite out of the apple. “Have you got toast?”

Three slices of toast later, they hear the sound of the front door opening, then shuffling as James hangs his coat and walks towards them. He sets a brown paper bag on the counter and turns to Lily. “You are doing _all_ the shopping once the baby is born,” he says accusatorily.

“But I’ll have to do the actual birth while you just sit and watch,” she says pleasantly.

“Yes, well – yes,” he gestures around stupidly. “You’re not wrong.”

Smiling amusedly up at him, she nods towards the counter, where a third steaming mug is sat waiting. “Come and sit. Sirius was just telling me about a new motorbike he’s bought.”

“A motorbike?” James says interestedly, turning to Lily. “That’s a muggle thing, isn’t it?” He takes the milk out of the bag and pours a generous amount into his tea, then taps his wand on the bottle. It immediately starts to frost.

“D’you remember those loud boys around my neighbourhood in Cokeworth? They rode those.”

“Ah.” He snaps his fingers. “The ones with two wheels?”

“Yeah.”

“Right.” Then, turning to Sirius, “No offense, mate, but I think Lily’s car is way cooler.”

Sirius shrugs. “Yeah, but I was trying to think of how else I could send my mother to an early grave. Anything Muggle goes, at this point.”

“Ah, fair.”

The shaggy-haired man barks out a laugh. “Anyway, I’ve been adding some modifications – I reckon it’d look good a few feet off the ground. Think you could come and have a look sometime?”

“That’s a given,” James responds, grinning. Lily rolls her eyes beside him but can’t hide the small, amused smile picking at her lips. It wouldn’t do to expect the Marauders to develop some maturity just because they’ve graduated, after all.

Finishing up the last of her tea, she rises from her chair and looks expectantly at Sirius. “Right. Since you’re here, you can talk modifications over some cooking,” she tells him. “You two roast the lamb, I’ll do the potatoes.”

The next hour or so is spent dicing, peeling, and seasoning, with a few heated arguments thrown into the mix for good measure. The potatoes and salad are fairly easy to prepare, so Lily’s already arranged them on the table with a preserving charm when Sirius and James start bickering about how the lamb should be cooked.

“ _Roast_ , that’s what Lily said – _roast!_ Chucking it over a pan isn’t going to do it –”

“Neither’s setting it on fire!”

“I’m not going to _set it on fire_ , it’s a measured use of _Incendio_ – shove off, Padfoot, I’ve done this before –”

“Yeah, and I’ve tasted your cooking before! I’d rather swallow rat’s poison, Wormtail be damned.”

“What do you know – you’ve never cooked in your life! You – you’re daft, you know that? Daft and spoilt.”

“ _I’m_ spoilt –?”

So engrossed in their bickering as they are, Lily’s hardly surprised when they don’t hear the roar of the fireplace. Without sparing them another glance, she makes towards the living room just in time to see Remus dusting off ash from his tweed jacket.

“Remus,” she greets warmly, moving forwards to grasp him in a hug. Out of all the Marauders, she’d always been closest to Remus during her school days. After all, it was his presence that convinced her that the rest of them couldn’t be too bad if they had a friend like him.

He smiles at her. “Hi, Lily. It’s been a while – how are you?”

“Oh, I’m alright. I hope you’re not too hungry. I put James and Sirius in charge of the lamb.”

“Ah. I can wait.”

“Excellent. Oh – hello, Pete, Marlene!”

Hugs and general pleasantries are exchanged as Lily leads them to the dining table, flicking her wand to fetch tea for all of them. She listens as they catch up; the last they’d all been together like this was at least two weeks ago. And, truly, listening in doesn’t bring her much happiness – Remus has been laid off again, Peter’s mother is only becoming sicker, and Marlene’s eldest sister got sent a threatening letter after she’d written about Muggleborn rights – but it’s comforting, at least, to be together like this.

She sits down next to Remus as Peter and Marlene keep chatting. “Hey,” she says softly, nudging him lightly. “How are you, really?”

He turns to look at her and it strikes her just how tired he looks. Of course, she knows about his _affliction_ , but this seems to go beyond that. The bags under his eyes are all too large, and his usually vibrant sandy hair is more lifeless than ever. The usual weariness he so often embodies seems to sink deep into his bones, colouring his very person.

“Ah,” he shrugs, “I’ve been better.”

Lily rubs a hand along his back. “I can tell,” she says quietly. “Remus… you know you’re welcome over anytime, right?”

He smiles at her, and this time it seems to take some of the weariness out of his eyes. “Thank you, Lily. I appreciate it, I do – I just –” he lowers his voice, “– it’s been a little… difficult, what with all the business for the Order, and all that.”

It’s the answer she expects, but it doesn’t make her feel any better about his situation. Of course, she’d known Dumbledore had asked Remus to perform a task, but surely his own heath and sanity should be held above anything the Order needs? Surely Dumbledore would understand if he saw Remus as he is now, bone-weary and thin and looking as if he’d not smiled in a year?

But of course, for people like Dumbledore, the war is prioritised over all else, so she keeps her mouth shut and squeezes him lightly. “Well, I’d like to see you when you can spare the time. _Especially_ when the baby’s ears start to develop. I read somewhere that what the baby hears in the womb will shape its’ personality in the years to come, and I’d rather have you around than Sirius and James all the time.”

Remus smiles wryly. “Can’t have that, can we?”

As if on cue, James and Sirius burst from the kitchen, one carrying the roast lamb on a large tray and the other brandishing at it wildly.

“Behold!” James booms.

“The greatest rack of lamb you’ll ever taste in your sorry lives!” Sirius bellows.

It’s entirely loud and dramatic as they stand there and moon over the dish they’d prepared and, weariness aside, at least Lily can count on Remus, because they both turn to each other and roll their eyes in tandem.

“I’ll start brewing an antidote,” she sighs.


End file.
